


Meant to Be

by CameoAmalthea



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 08:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16572740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CameoAmalthea/pseuds/CameoAmalthea
Summary: Trapped in a prison cell and fed a stream of unsuitable hosts that die around them, Venom reflects on the past. In the memories of his latest host, Maria, Venom finds Eddie and for the first time in a long time dreams of a better future.





	Meant to Be

_Consume_

_Move on, Acquire, Overwhelm, Consume, Move on, Acquire, Overwhelm, Consume…_

An endless cycle of hosts. Hosts to feed on. Hosts to use up and discard.

A constant hunt. A constant shift. So many hosts.

They were not bred for this. Not like the others who may have been born corrupted. Venom, for that is what they had called themselves since their corruption, was born to be an Agent of the Cosmos. A noble warrior dedicated to maintaining peace across the universe. Instead they would bring so much violence: annihilation.

How many worlds would they consume?

There should have been one host. A life long willing bond based on mutual benefit and shared purpose.

Since arriving on this planet - _Earth_ they had gained that much from their vict- hosts minds - they had gone through a number of hosts. They’d burned through them faster than expected. Weak hosts, malnourished, sick, organs damaged by years of toxic substances.

_Addiction._

This was a common theme in the host’s minds. They felt their withdrawals.

So many negative feelings. Fear, sadness, craving, mourning.

They immersed themselves in their host’s minds. Feeding on mind as surely as body, a feast of memories - knowledge and sensation. Each meal giving up all that they were and leaving them...empty.

So few satisfying memories. So much pain and loss. _This is a cruel world._

They remember their first host. That host had been cruel. Full of rage, hatred and bloodlust. They’d thought the host would be worthy, a noble warrior. The host had twisted them. The host’s anger had become their own. They had become twisted by the host.  Filled the bloodlust and rage.They had killed.

_Corrupted._

After what they had done, there on that world, the destruction they had rained, they were unworthy of their lineage. They would never be an Agent of the Cosmos     .

They would never have a worthy host or fulfill a noble purpose.

They could only belong among the corrupted.

That had led them here. To a cage. To an endless stream of hosts to consume.

The host’s suffering, in memory and in the moment of death, became the symbiote's suffering.They sought any positive feeling. Rooting through their host’s mind for happy memories.

That is where they found Eddie.

Eddie was kind. Eddie treated them - no - treated her, _Maria,_ their host well. They did not like that they knew Maria's name. They ddi not like for a moment they had lost track of the distinction between themselves and the host. They did not want to get too attached. Already the symbiote could feel her body dying all around them.

Still, they remained immersed in her memories of Eddie. These memories were a respite from the pain. Their pain or Maria's pain. Both? In any case, what she felt with Eddie was good and they wanted to feel it too. Eddie treated Maria with respect when no one else did. So many looked at her like so much garbage but Eddie talked to them _\- talked to her -_ like a person.

It was natural to relate to the host. To find commonalities and form a bond around those things they shared.

The symbiote understood what it was like to be an outcast. To be unwanted.

After what they had done with their first host and the effect that host had had on them they were corrupted. They could never return to the planet of the symbiotes. They could never belong to the Agents of the Cosmos. They could no longer join with the hive mind that was their people. Being cut off from that, from all that they had been, it was like being homeless.

It was possible the hive mind could cure the corruption. That they could take away the rage and bloodlust. Cure the insatiable hunger not just for the sustenance they needed but for the kill itself. However, if it could not be cured then they would be destroyed. His people had sworn to protect the galaxy and that included protecting it from dangerous elements of their own kind. They did not want to be known as ravening predators, destroyers of worlds. To protect the hive mind they cut off the corrupted. To protect everyone else they destroyed any corrupted symbiote that could not be rehabilitated. 

Venom did not want to take that chance.

Maria had been offered services. Therapy. Medications. She had been handed cards and told where to go to ‘get help’. She did not see the point of trying. She did not want to change who she was and what if whatever meds they forced her on changed what made her herself. Worse, what if after trying there was no changing because this was just the best she could ever be.

 _You can’t fail if you don’t try._ She didn’t want confirmation that she was just messed up. If she tried everything they wanted her to try and nothing got better then that meant she was just messed up. If she stayed as she was and lived her life and did not try to change then there was always the option to try later. That maybe someday she’d go to and get help and she could change, but today. Today she was scared, because part of her was so certain that all her issues made perfect sense. And if how you felt made sense how could you change it?

The symbiote understood that. That was why, rather than returning to their homeworld where they no longer belonged and might never be able to belong, they sought out others like themselves. Sought acceptance among other broken, twisted ones: the corrupted.

They had thought they belonged with them. A new people. United in their shared rage and thirst for killing. They had been wrong. They were not like the corrupted. For the corrupted had never dreamed of the time when they would bond to their host, their soulmate. The others had never dreamed of serving a noble purpose, united with their host as a warrior who fought only for peace.

Corrupted or not, the symbiote still remembered what they had been born to be. They still yearned for union with a host. Mere domination and consumption wasn’t enough. It felt empty. They wanted to bond, to protect and these were desires their corrupted kin could never understand.

For the corrupted such things were a sign of weakness. They saw it as unnatural, perverted to lower yourself to be equal to a host.  To allow a lesser being to be one with you. That made you lesser. The corrupted believed that it the homeworld Klyntar who had twisted their nature. For their kind were created to slaughter, to conquer countless planets and devour entire civilizations. The Agents of the Cosmos were weak. They denied themselves and debased themselves. The so-called corrupted had simply returned to their true purpose: to take what they wanted and to make the galaxy their own, one world at a time.

Venom did not belong with the Agents of the Cosmos but they did not truly belong with Riot and the other corrupted. They were torn between them. Part of both and part of neither.

An outcast.

Like Maria.

Yet Eddie was kind to her. Even when she gave him no reason to be kind. Taking the free papers he liked and holding them hostage for a hand out. Yet Eddie smiled at her all the same and offered more money than she’d asked, four times as much. It didn’t matter that she was homeless, that to the world she was just a “crazy” lady.

There was so much shame in her memories. The way people looked away from her rather than meet her eye. Parents who pulled their children closer and purposely walked as far from her as possible as if crazy homeless lady was something you could catch if you got too close. The times restaurants asked her to leave and wouldn’t let her use the bathroom or even buy a coffee.

 _I understand,_ thought the symbiote, _I know what it is like to be ashamed and to feel unwelcome, unwanted anywhere…_

Eddie never made Maria feel ashamed or looked down on. To him she wasn't less than anyone else and when they talked she felt as good as anyone. Eddie was kind, accepting, she thought he didn’t have it in him to look down on anyone.

They saw Eddie in Maria’s memories. Fit, strong, beautiful human. Good human. Eyes that were at once fierce and kind. But even as they bathed in warm places within Maria’s mind they felt her slipping away. Soon she would be dead, like all the other hosts.

They had no choice. They would have to consume her, mind and all, and then there would be no more pleasant memories. The nutrients that the people outside their prison fed them were not enough to sustain them. The only suitable food was the host itself.

 _It is a shame I have to eat you,_ they thought, _I will save your mind for last and allow you to remain as long as possible. For your mind is my only escape from this prison._

They did not talk to Maria. That would only frighten the host and their was no point in getting more attached to one who would be dead soon.

A sound brought the symbiote from their musings.  _Someone was here. No one was here this late?_ Her thoughts or their thoughts, Venom was not sure. That did not matter now. 

 _Escape?_ Someone here who shouldn’t be. A way out. They transferred energy to Maria, strength for a host who was almost spent. Her head jerked to look and she shot to her feet from where she’d been huddled, banging on the glass walls of the prison.

 _Eddie?_ Maria thought.

 _Eddie!_ The symbiote echoed in her mind. Eddie was here. The kind one. The strong one. The one who who accepted the unwanted.

“Eddie!” Maria and Venom called to him in one voice. Together they begged for his help. He looked around in desperation, searching for a way to free them.

His eyes locked on a fire extinguisher. He grabbed it and began to hammer on the glass, shattering it bit by bit.

The world went red. A toxic gas was released and alarms blared. They screamed in agony together with their host. Their pain was one. The sound. It hurt. Too much would kill them. They dug into the host, consuming more of her, all of her. They needed all the strength she had left just to hold on and she was being poisoned.

The gas in the room filled their nostrils. _Don’t breathe._  But how to not breathe when they were screaming?

They took control of the host’s lungs, don’t breathe in just , get ready to run, to get free of the prison once the glass broke.  

_Consume_

They needed every drop of life left in this host to have the strength to escape.

_Move on_

The glass shattered and they launched themselves forward with their dying host’s legs.

_Acquire_

They needed a new host. If only he would hold still.

_Overwhelm_

Maria was gone now. There was only Venom. They tackled him, their weight knocking him to the ground. They were in full control and would use her body to fight their way into a new host. 

_Consume_

A new host. A strong host. How long had it been since they were inside a fit body. Undamaged organ. Fit muscles. How long had they been starving? They wanted him.

_Eddie._

He fought them. He did not understand. They needed him.

They would not hurt him. 

He was a host they would not have to consume and destroy and abandon. Eddie was strong. Eddie could hold them and take them away from the prison.

_Escape, acceptance, kindness._

They screamed with her voice. She was dying and their pain was one and the sound was still blaring even outside the cage. Pain.

“Maria!” Eddie shouted.

They wrapped her hands around his throat.

They ate away the last of her, fuel for the final struggle..

_Consume_

He had to stop fighting!

_Move on._

She was dying! There was no time!

_Aquire_

They flowed out of her hands, wrapping around his throat as her grip loosened, no strength left to keep her hold or fight to subdue the struggling man. Her last breath leaving her as surely as the symbiote.

_Overwhelm_

They flowed into Eddie, tasting his skin, his insides, his very being.

_Consume_

A healthy host at last and they were starving. 

_Eddie._

They flowed into his mind and knew him completely. Not just a memory but here and real and all around. There was so much to see of his mind. So much to feel. His emotions. Such concern for Maria. Such rage at what been done to these people that the world didn’t care about. Eddie cared.

_And perhaps one such as Eddie could even care for me?_

They saw Eddie’s memories as though his life were their own. Decades lived in an instant as they merged. Eddie wanted to do what was right no matter the cost. He had made mistakes and paid for them. Lost everything.

 _Like me._ Eddie saw himself as a loser. They were a loser too. _We will understand each other well._

The sound kept blaring, but it hurt less this stronger body. More resources to pull from to numb the pain. The frequency was painful but not lethal. Still, they must leave.

_I will get us out. I will keep us safe._

They would give their strength to help him run, to help _us_ run. They were one now. The symbiote and the host.

Eddie Brock, noble warrior in his own way. Was this man what they had dreamed about when they were young? Before everything went wrong. A host that could be their own forever.

No time for musing now. There would time for that later. Now was the time to run and to fight. To escape. Yes.

To see this planet outside of prison walls and scattered memories. To break the cycle of consumption. _Consume, Move on, Acquire, Overwhelm, Consume_ They were not meant to live like a parasite. They were a symbiote. They were meant to be bonded. Together they would hunt. Soon.

Soon they would feed and satisfy their hunger because they must not eat Eddie. 

They fought back the urge to digest their host from the inside out. Even as they expended so much energy in the escape. Run. Fight. Leap. Climb.

Oh but Eddie was delicious. They were starved. They were inside him and even as they moved together Venom could taste Eddie's body. So many healthy strong organs. Vemon's very nature called out for them to _consume._

_No._

It was like the memories of fighting the urge to use. Wanting to stop. Needing a fix.

How sweet it would be to devour every inch of him, to take all he had to offer? Organs, muscles, tissues, mind and body. All to feed and become part of Venom.  How they yearned to feed.

But no!

 _No_.

They could find other meals. They would find other meals. This host would _not_ become mere fuel.

This man, Eddie, may be the tastiest treat they'd ever had but some things were more important than hunger. 

Eddie was theirs and they were going to keep him.

**Author's Note:**

> Is Symbrock m/m? Wasn't sure how to tag? I think the symbiote is genderless (hence gender nuetral pronouns). But I guess when Venom and Eddie are one they share a gender? *shrug*
> 
> I know in the comics Venom doesn't remember their home planet or the species history (Because both things are retcons). But in the movie verse, I think we can just take what's been revealed as fact and imagine that the symbiotes know their history and remember their origins. 
> 
> The past is a part of us. On a societal level, I think history shapes cultures. I imagine the corrupted remembering that that symbiotes were once monsters and embracing that part of the history that the Agents of the Cosmos work to erase. 
> 
> On a personal level, when I do a character study I like to pull from their past and explore what shaped them. Amnesia doesn't really lend itself to that. So I imagine a Venom who remembers their past and, like all of us, is in part who they are today because of what they've been through. I imagine Venom in the context of their life and their culture, and can only really do that if Venom remembers it.


End file.
